Gridiron Dinner: Trump Meets the Press

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President Trump spoke at the Gridiron Dinner last night. Not televised. The full transcript of his speech is here. Here’s part of his opening remarks:

It’s been really another calm week at the White House. We finally have it running like a fine-tuned machine. It’s fine-tuned. It’s a beautiful piece of work. … But before I get started, I wanted to apologize for arriving a little bit late. You know, we were late tonight because Jared could not get through security. 

. . .

I know the Gridiron is really an old tradition in Washington, been around a long time, and one that’s important to many of you in the media. So, I was very excited to receive this invitation and come here and ruin your evening in person. 

… My staff was concerned heading into this dinner that I couldn’t do self-deprecating humor. They were worried about it. They said, ‘Can you do this?’ And I told them not to worry. Nobody does self-deprecating humor better than I do. …  In fact, Orrin Hatch, Orrin said that ‘Donald Trump is the best at self-deprecating in the history of America, better than Washington and better than Lincoln.’ … Thank you, Orrin.

More:

. . . Attorney General Sessions is here with us tonight. … I offered him a ride over and he recused himself. … But that’s OK. We also have some of the leading lights of the media here including some folks from the failing New York Times. That sucker is failing! … I know we have our differences, but I also know that you have a very special place … in my heart. … The other day they had five stories on the front page of the New York Times and every one of them was totally different and each one of them was bad.

After all, you the New York Times are an icon. I’m a New York icon, you’re a New York icon, and the only difference is, I still own my buildings.

I especially have a place in my heart for Arthur Sulzberger. … Our stories are almost mirror images. I inherited a million dollars from my father—had a great father—gave me a million dollars and I turned it into billions. True story. Arthur inherited billions of dollars and he turned his into millions. Hello Arthur.

More zingers at the TPM blog transcript here.

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The War Against Trump

David Horowitz of the Freedom Center was raised a Communist. He rejected Communism in favor of freedom, and his perspective is always inspiring and insightful. And he knows how to call them [the Progressive left] out. Here’s his short piece on Front Page Magazine today (I’d bookmark it or email it to yourself for reference when you anticipate a discussion around the dinner table!):

the Democrats and their media accomplices have declared all-out war on the Trump White House. Under the guise of “resistance” – as though the Trump was the head of an occupying army rather than an elected president - they have set out to destroy his administration. They are not “sore losers,” as many had surmised when their hysterical attacks on Trump as an American Hitler began, they are an army of saboteurs bent on destroying the government the voters preferred. Their general, Barack Obama, is an unrepentant radical who abused the office of the presidency when he was in power, and as ex-president is now leading a war to overthrow his successor.  

With the election over, the Democratic Party is now in the hands of the Bernie Sanders-Tom Perez-Keith Ellison-Barack Obama radical left. Abetted by a corrupt media, funded by the anti-American billionaire George Soros, egged on by Obama’s corrupt attorney general, Loretta Lynch, and a collusive press, the left has launched vile and violent demonstrations in the streets, rancid witch-hunts in the halls of Congress posing as “confirmation hearings,” and treasonous intelligence leaks, which have already claimed Trump’s National Security advisor General Michael Flynn as their victim. Their next target Attorney General Jeff Sessions is already in their crosshairs, the object of character assassinations by senators Schumer, Warren, and other Democrats, and by their disgraced and disgraceful media accomplices. 

For none of this would have been possible without the active collusion of the Washington Post, the New York Times and the media networks who have promoted the false narrative of an alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians to fix with the election. There is zero evidence of such collusion but plenty of evidence that Obama and his cohorts have disregarded the Constitution and the law to spy on reporters they don’t like, to use the IRS and other government agencies to take down their opponents and undermine the democratic system.

As I explained in my book Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America, the source of this civil war mentality is a profound rejection of the American idea. This is the idea that we are equal citizens regardless of our origins, and that we are accountable as individuals for what we do. The left’s creed – identity politics – is an anti-American, racially charged determination to reject individual accountability and individual freedom, and to establish in their place group privileges, and racial/gender hierarchies. These hierarchies are based on the malicious premise that whites, heterosexuals and males are oppressors and - in the words of the Democratic platform - America is a society governed by “systemic racism,” which needs to be fundamentally transformed.

This collectivist, racial creed is the heart and soul of today’s Democratic Party and its allies in the mainstream media. It is the inspiration for the war Democrats have declared on the newly elected government of Donald Trump. In his inaugural address, Trump addressed the war in uncompromising but thoroughly American terms. “Through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other…. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice…. Whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.” This is the American creed, and it is the voice of the American people who elected Trump in November 2016.

A War Against Trump??? Surely that is an overstatement. Um, ask Monica Crowley. (And for back-up on CNN's Crowley hit job, see here.) And look what CRTV / Mark Levin / and “a billionaire named Cary Katz” just did to Mark Steyn. And that’s on top of  Michael “Hockey Stick graph” Mann’s lawsuit again Steyn -- that is still stuck in the circuit court.

Unfortunately, it does not seem possible to overstate the case, and Horowitz sums it up.

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There will be more out-of-control immigration

Art credit: thepoliticalforums.com

A meaningless bill to put some "safeguards" 

into immigration background checks

From cleveland.com:  

Northeast Ohio Democrats Tim Ryan and Marcy Kaptur were among 47 Democrats who joined with the majority of House Republicans on Thursday to pass a controversial bill that would increase government background checks done before Syrian or Iraqi refugees are admitted to the United States.

All Ohio's Republicans backed the bill, which passed by a veto-proof vote of 289 to 137.

But the bill is toothless. From Conservative Treehouse:

House Votes On Meaningless Refugee Bill – “SAFE Act” Passes With Veto Proof 289-137 Support….

Under the Paul Ryan approved bill -American Security Against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act of 2015– the FBI director would be required to certify the background investigation of each refugee from Iraq and Syria.  And only refugees from Iraq and Syria.  And if you are Syrian and you walk into Turkey to begin applying for refugee status, presto, the bill doesn’t cover you.

The SAFE ACT requires the FBI, along with the secretary of Homeland Security and the director of National Intelligence, to certify to Congress that each refugee is not a security threat. The legislation also requires the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office to independently assess the refugee approvals.

However, the bill is largely meaningless and well beyond toothless. Senator Sessions (R-AL) noted refugees and migrants from nine different countries have been implicated in terrorism incidents over the past year.  “Ignoring this reality, the American SAFE Act allows the president to continue to bring in as many refugees as he wants from anywhere in the world,” Sessions said previously. 

There is nothing in the bill to prevent refujihadis from crossing our borders. Just more Kabuki theater from Congress.

UPDATE Nov-20 4:30 pm: Cleveland.com reports that

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson this week joined dozens of other mayors of major U.S. cities in affirming that Syrians seeking refuge from their war-torn homeland are welcome here.

"The City of Cleveland has always opened her arms to refugees, regardless of where they are from," Jackson wrote Wednesday in an emailed statement.

Jackson joins Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings -- who all said they would help resettle Syrian refugees in their cities, despite the recent wave of panic among politicians about the perceived connections between Syrians, the Islamic State and last week's terrorist attacks in Paris that killed 129 people.

Mayors of 18 other cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago also signed a letter sent to President Barack Obama in September, pledging to work with the administration to help resettle Syrian refugees in their towns.

But like many of those mayors, Jackson's views on the issue depart from those of his state's governor.

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Drudge: Republicans Plan New Obamatrade Push

 Sen. Jeff Sessions Comments On Continuing Push To Grant Obama New Executive Powers (h/t Breitbart): 

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) issued the following statement today [June 12] regarding the vote to give President Obama expanded fast-track executive authorities:

“It appears there will be another attempt by Tuesday to force through new executive powers for President Obama. A vote for TAA next week is a vote to send fast-track to the President’s desk and to grant him these broad new executive authorities. If that happens, it will empower the President to form a Pacific Union encompassing 40 percent of the world’s economy and 12 nations—each with one equal vote. Once the union is formed, foreign bureaucrats will be required to meet regularly to write the Commission’s rules, regulations, and directives—impacting Americans’ jobs, wages, and sovereignty. The union is chartered with a “Living Agreement,” and there is no doubt it will seek to expand its membership and reach over time.

Fast-track will not only apply to the Pacific Union, but can expedite an unlimited number of yet-unseen international compacts for six years. There are already plans to advance through fast-track the Trade in Services Agreement, the goal of which includes labor mobility among more than 50 nations, further eroding the ability of the American people to control their own affairs.

Americans do not want this, did not ask for it, and are pleading from their hearts for their lawmakers to stop it.

The same people projecting the benefits of leaping into a colossal new economic union could not even accurately predict the impact of a standalone agreement with South Korea. The latter deal, which promised to boost our exports to them $10 billion, instead only budged them less than $1 billion, while South Korea’s imports to us increased more than $12 billion, nearly doubling our trading deficit. This new agreement will only further increase our trading deficit: opening our markets to foreign imports while allowing our trading partners to continue their non-tariff barriers that close their markets to ours.

If we want a new trade deal with Japan, or with Vietnam, then they should be negotiated bilaterally and sent to Congress under regular order. Under no circumstances should the House authorize, through fast-track, the formation of a new international commission that will regulate not only trade, but immigration, labor, environmental, and all manner of commercial policy.

What American went to the polls in 2014 to vote for fast-track and a new global union? Can anyone honestly say that Congress is trying to ram this deal through because they think their constituents want it?

While elites dream of a world without borders, voters dream of a world where the politicians they elect put this country’s own citizens first.

The movement among Americans toward a decent, honest populism—toward a refocusing on the needs of American citizens and American interests—grows stronger by the day. Every vote to come before Congress, beginning with the next fast-track push, will face this test: does your plan strengthen or weaken the social and economic position of the loyal, everyday working American?”

Permalink: http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2015/6/sessions-comments-on-continuing-push-to-grant-obama-new-executive-powers

Michelle Malkin has more sobering comments here. 

Ted Cruz has come out in support of the bill. 

Why would Congress pass (let alone rush to pass ~ without reading) a bill that further compromises the sovereignty of the United States? 

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